Cathy's Art Diary

Slightly confusing exhibition at the Ara Pacis in Rome which looked at the work of a Inarea Identity and Design Network, “an international network of independent designers, architects, strategists and consultants, specializing in the creation and management of identity systems”. OK I’m quoting from the website as I was a bit confused. I think they design brand identities and the exhibition included a display of these iconic images. It also had a selection of wonderful models of major buildings made in odd materials such as Big Ben made of pencils.

Wonderful exhibition at the Borghese Gallery in Rome using works by Lucas Cranach to compare the Southern and Northern Renaissance. The gallery used the works in its own collection of Southern Renaissance works to contrast with works by Cranach. On the whole the Northern works stood up well although you had to bare in mind that the Northern and Southern views of beauty were different. It would have been good to have more time. We were booked into the limited 2 hour slot and had to do the exhibition and the gallery which sadly needed at least half an hour with the Caravaggio’s! Oh for a longer holiday when we could have gone back!

Small exhibition at the Capitoline Museum in Rome to mark the loan to the museum of a terracotta ‘sketch’ of two wrestlers by the Casa Buonarroti in Florence. The small sculpture was displayed in the middle of a beautiful room under heavy security. You were able to walk all the way round and study it in detail. There was a fascinating video on how it was packed and unpacked. I would have liked to see a bit more background information putting the work into context. It was displayed as a beautiful thing.